Radikal Freedom Yoga as realisation

Modern yoga is commonly understood as a sequence of postures, maybe in flow, that sort of stretch and exercise the body and help you feel good.
The proper title for what people most commonly think of as a posture in yoga is an ‘asana’.

I think a useful place to begin is with what Asana is not:

• Asana is not a posture.
• Asana is not another way of looking good naked.
• Asana is definitely not some form of Hindu aerobics, if this approach is all you’re getting then maybe start to look a little deeper?
• Yoga Asana practice is not about stretching, not about getting fit, not about getting strong, not about feeling good, not about healing and not about relaxing.
• The endorphin and dopamine (neurotransmitters) buzz from a yoga asana practice is simply one aspect of a practice; it is not what defines the practice. Though a good reason to start the practice, these biochemicals slowly reduce through time and you have to find deeper reasons to practice.

The above – feeling good, looking good, strength, flexibility, neurochemical bliss, healing, relaxation and a profound sense of wellbeing, are all simply side effects of a good practice.

So what is Asana?

• Asana literally means ‘seat’. It’s the same Indo-European word root that gives us the English word ‘arse’, that which you sit on.

• Each ‘seat’ you inhabit is also a geometric play of energy, a place of meditative awareness.

• Asana is also a form of preventative medicine, an aspect of intelligent flow medicine that keeps one free of dis-ease, and the primary cause of disease, which is the stress ridden experience of separateness. As a result, one rests in radiant health.

• Each asana you inhabit is a play of energy in opposition and its conscious unification from which arises the possibility of deep stilling of the mind. Each seat has a particular energetic teaching to offer in this respect.Each asana has the qualities of grounded stability and deep ease. These arise through development in the progressive stages of practice.

• Each asana, from a neuro-physiological view switches on the intelligence of the body and awakens the body as living neurology.

• The awakened body is fully conscious and the vehicle of realized consciousness.
  Realized consciousness is the function and outcome of a good practice.